Details
ST4916
8/145
MONTACUTE CP
MIDDLE STREET (South side)
Church of St. Catherine
19.4.61
GV
II*
Anglican Parish Church. C12 origins, altered C13 and C15, restored 1870-71 by Henry Hall. Ham stone ashlar; stone slate roofs between stepped coped gables, some behind low parapets. Cruciform plan: two-bay chancel, five bay nave; west tower, north porch linked by lobby to north transept, south-east vestry.
Chancel largely rebuilt 1870 in C14 style: wide angled corner buttresses, plinth, eaves course; east window early Geometric style three-light under label with curl stops; similar windows in side walls, and on south side the 1864 vestry to match, with two-light south window in gable and plain east door.
South transept probably C15, with rebuilt gable: half-height corner buttresses, eaves course; three-light Geometric tracery south window, under which is a moulded pointed-arched doorway with square label continued as a string course: to west a single lancet without label, to east a four-light flat-headed window without label, ogee-traceried and cusped heads, central king mullion. North transept similar, but with two lancets in east wall.
Nave at least partially rebuilt on south, north may be earlier: plinth, bay buttresses, eaves string with gargoyles, shallow plain parapet with moulded coping: C15 style traceried three-light windows set in hollowed arched recesses with square-stop labels, four on south and two on north.
North porch may be C12: large angled corner buttresses, eaves string, stepped coped gable with cross finial; doorway a two-chamfered only just pointed arch with simple string and formerly carved stops; above a C14 canopied statue niche under a relieving arch and a small C14 two-light window; inside a quadripartite vault with ridge ribs and
Tudor rose boss; inner doorway simpler, with pointed arch.
Tower in three stages, probably C15: offset corner buttresses two stages high with diagonal-set shafts over, no pinnacles remaining; full-height hexagonal stair turret to north-west corner; thick string courses of quatrefoil panel bands each level, partly missing on south side, crenellated parapet: west doorway deeply moulded with flanking shafts set diagonally; traceried panels under cill of four-light sub-arcuated traceried and transomed west window in hollowed recess, breaking into stage two; small rectangular window and clockface to north stage two; to stage three two-light windows in recesses without labels to all faces.
Interior largely C19 restoration: ashlar wall facings, C19 roofs with angel corbels to trusses: chancel arch C12, three plain orders with side shafts having scalloped capitals, squint to south side: C13 transept arches with triple-shaft jambs, original mouldings to capitals on east sides, the south- east having dog-tooth ornament: transept windows have rere-arches with labels to gable windows: tower arch C15, tall, double panelled. In chancel some recut C16 lettered panels; in nave the ornamented arch to a Norman doorway with X and lozenge decoration, fire-reddened, and one corbel to organ loft in north parvise is C12: font in lobby between porch and transept possibly C15, octagonal with panelled bowl, underbowl and shaft; this lobby has panelled link arches, probably C15.
Monuments include several in north transept, the Phelips family chapel (owners of Montacute House, q.v), with effigies of David and Ann, died 1484, and Bridget, died 1508, probably on later bases, canopied effigies of Thomas, died 1588, and Elizabeth, died 1598; on west wall garble monument to Edward, died 1690, having coupled Ionic pilasters and pediment: also in chancel small stone plaque to John House, yeoman, died 1660. chapel of St. Catherine attached to the nearby Priory of St Peter and St Paul (Abbey Farmhouse, q.v, established by 1102) first mentioned c1180: one of the two burned down c1207
(VCH Vol 111, 1974; Pevsner, N, Buildings of England, South and West Somerset, 1958).
Listing NGR: ST4967416950
